Explores current media (print and web) articles pertaining to the ocean and the scientific underpinnings of these accounts. Topics range from climate change, natural disasters, fisheries, aquaculture, ecosystems, geoengineering... to military and economics implications of an ice-free Arctic Ocean.
This course is designed to provide a broad introduction to the oceans. If you are interested in learning the answers to questions like, "Is it really true that every marine plant gets eaten (on average) once a week?" or "Where did that fish that I just ate come from?" or "Why is the surfing best near points of land?" or "How does the ocean influence my day to day life?" or "What's in store for the future?", then this course is for you. The audience we teach spans a wide range of backgrounds from athletics to serious science majors. We aim to reach everyone in the class. You might imagine that thats a great challenge.
The global water cycle; major processes governing the distribution of chemical species within the hydrosphere; mass balances, fluxes and reactions in the marine environment from global to sub-micron scales; relationships to physical, biological, and geological processes; geochemical tracers and tools.
The thermodynamic and kinetic approaches to understanding earth processes. Application of theory to practical questions such as mineral formation, weathering and petroleum formation. Minor treatment is given to shorter term ocean and atmosphereic and longer term Earth history geochemistry.
Major aspects of the global cycle, sources and sinks of chemical elements present in aquatic systems, weathering reactions, solution geochemisrty of oxic and anoxic environments in natural aquatic systems (rainwaters, groundwaters, rivers, lakes estuaries and oceans). The computer program "MINEQL+" will be introduced and used for solving problems. Other topics include the application of natural and antropogenic tracers to geochemical problems within aquatic systems.
The class conducted field studies of the aquatic chemistry of Lake Cowichan, BC. Samples were collected from 13 inflow and outflow locations and characterized by temperature, pH and water flow. They were analyzed for Silica, alkalinity, pH, and for major, minor and trace constituents in the contexts of geological provenance, geochemical mass balance, and solution chemistry.
Basic principles controlling isotope distributions, including natural abundances, radiogenis decay, equilibrium and kinetic isotope effects. Applications of these principles in the fields of: 1) Earth history - global processes and cronology; 2) mineralization - diagenesis, catagenesis; 3) hydrogeology and characterization of water and air masses; 4) biogeochemistry and biological fractionation isotopes.
Ocean Biogeochemical Processes Home Page